24: The road to amazing

The road to amazing (Russel Middlebrook: The futon years 3)
af Brent Hartinger


228 sider
2016
eg.
engelsk
god

Fra Amazon:
“I think gay guys like weddings more than anyone. And it's not because we want to destroy marriage, like some people say. It's because we really, really want to get married!"
Russel Middlebrook is gettin' hitched!
The wedding is taking place in a remote lodge on an island in Puget Sound. Russel and his husband-to-be have invited all their close friends to spend the whole weekend together beforehand.
And for the first time in his life, Russel is determined to not be neurotic, and not over-think things.
But that's before things start going wrong. Who expected a dead killer whale to wash up on the beach below the inn? And what's this about a windstorm approaching? Then there's the problem of Russel's anxious fiancé, who is increasingly convinced the whole thing is going to be a disaster.
Meanwhile, the wedding is taking place near the ruins of a small town, Amazing, where, a hundred years earlier, the people supposedly all disappeared overnight. Why does it feel like the secret at the end of the road to Amazing has something to do with Russel's own future?
Can Russel's friends Min, Gunnar, Vernie, and Otto somehow help him make it all make sense?




en god afslutning på serien

11: Barefoot tn the city of broken dreams

Barefoot in the city of broken dreams (Russel Middlebrook: The Futon Years 2)
af Brent Hartinger


257 sider
2015
eg.
engelsk
god


fra Amazon:
“There was no way moving to Los Angeles was going to make me give up my soul. After all, I’d already seen all the movies about Hollywood. I knew how things worked.” Twenty-four year-old Russel Middebrook and his boyfriend have moved to Los Angeles so Russel can try to make it as a screenwriter. Almost right away, in a forgotten old house off of Sunset Boulevard, Russel meets Isaac Brander, a once-famous film producer who is convinced he can turn Russel’s screenplay into a movie. Russel knows that success can’t possibly come this easy. After all, most of Russel’s Los Angeles friends are so desperate to make it that it’s downright scary. His ex-boyfriend, Otto, is trying everything to become an actor, and Daniel, the sexy neighbor, doesn’t even need a casting couch to get naked. So what’s the catch with Mr. Brander? Could it be that movies about Hollywood don’t tell the whole truth?




Det er ret interessant at læse om bagsiden af Hollywood drømmen. Hvordan det er, når man kæmper for at bryde igennem. Når realiteterne kan overaske, selvom man tror man selv er fornuftig.
Samtidig er det også en bog om ikke at lade drømmen komme før alt andet. Finde ud af, hvad det er der i virkeligheden betyder noget.

56: Grand and Humble

Grand and Humble
af Brent Hardinger


218 sider
2006
eg.
engelsk
god


Alternating chapters follow the lives of two high school boys, whose recent nightmares and premonitions of disaster are linked to mysterious past events.


God bog med gode beskrivelser. Forfatteren holder kortene tæt ind til kroppen, så man ikke kan regne ud, hvad det hele går ud på før til sidst.

43: The thing I didn't know I didn't know

The thing I didn't know I didn't know (Russel Middlebrook: The futon years 1)
af Brent Hardinger


248 sider
2014
eg.
engelsk
god






Russel Middlebrook is twenty-three years old, gay, and living in trendy Seattle, but life isn't keeping up with the hype. Most of his friends have a direction in life—either ruthlessly pursuing their careers or passionately embracing their own aimlessness. But Russel is stuck in place. All he knows is that crappy jobs, horrible dates, and pointless hook-ups just aren't cutting it anymore.

What's the secret? What does everyone else know that he doesn't?

Enter Kevin, Russel's perfect high school boyfriend. Could rekindling an old flame be the thing Russel needs to get his life back on track? Or maybe the answer lies in a new friend, an eccentric screenwriter named Vernie Rose, who seems plenty wise. Or what the hell? Maybe Russel will find some answers by joining his best friend Gunnar's crazy search for the legendary Bigfoot!

One way or another, Russel is determined to learn the all-important secret to life, even if it's a thing he doesn't even know he doesn't know.




Jeg kan godt lide den voksne Russel. Interessant at læse en ny voksen bog om en person der startede i ungdomsbøger.
Jeg tror alle nye voksne kender det som Russel kæmper: Hvad vil jeg med mit liv? Er jeg den eneste der ikke ved hvad jeg vil osv.

27: The Elephant of Surprise

The Elephant of Surprise (The Russel Middlebrook series book 4)
af Brent Hardinger


225 sider
2013
eg.
engelsk
god


People aren't always what they seem to be. Sometimes we even surprise ourselves.
So discovers seventeen-year-old Russel Middlebrook in The Elephant of Surprise.
In this latest book, Russel and his friends Min and Gunnar are laughing about something they call the Elephant of Surprise – the tendency for life to never turn out as expected. Sure enough, Russel soon happens upon a hot but mysterious homeless activist named Wade, even as he's drawn back to an old flame named Kevin. Meanwhile, Min is learning surprising things about her girlfriend Leah, and Gunnar just wants to be left alone to pursue his latest technology obsession.
But the elephant is definitely on the move in all three of their lives. Just who is Wade and what are he and his friends planning? What is Leah hiding? And why is Gunnar taking naked pictures of Kevin in the shower?
The Elephant of Surprise includes Hartinger's trademark combination of humor and romance, angst and optimism. Before the story is over, Russel and his friends will learn that the Elephant of Surprise really does appear when you least expect him—and that when he stomps on you, it really, really Hurts.



En rigtig god afslutning på forfatterens bøger om Russel. Som altid i serien er bogen velskreven og man kommer ind under huden på personerne.

26: Double feature

Double feature: Attack of the soul-sucking brain zombies / Bride of the soul-sucking brain zombies(The Russel Middlebrook series book 3)
af Brent Hardinger


274 sider
2007
eg.
engelsk
god


It's a horror-movie extravaganza in this, the second sequel to Brent Hartinger's gay teen classic, Geography Club. Two complete books in one recount the stories of best friends Russel and Min who sign up to be extras on the set of a zombie film and learn that there's nothing scarier than high school romance.
In the first book, Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies, Russel must choose between his long-distance boyfriend and a close-to-home ex named Kevin who wants to get back together. In the second book, Bride of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies, Min struggles to accept her cheerleader girlfriend's decision to stay in the closet.
But beware! Russel and Min's separate stories affect each other in surprising ways, and you'll have to read both books together to find out the whole story



Rigtig god ungdomsroman. Jeg kunne specielt godt lide, at man fik to historier, der sommetider beskrev de samme begivenheder, hvorved ens viden om og syn på forskellige ting ændreres. Det gav en rigtig god effekt og gav ekstra dybde til personerne og historien

25: The order of the poison oak

The order of the poison oak (The Russel Middlebrook series book 2)
af Brent Hardinger


179 sider
2005
eg.
engelsk
god


Summer camp is different from high school. Something about spending the night. Things happen.
Geography Club’s Russel Middlebrook is back, and he's going to work as a summer camp counselor with his best friends Min and Gunnar. He's sick and tired of being openly gay in high school, and a peaceful summer at Camp Serenity is just what he needs to relieve the stress that comes from being an "out" teenager
But he doesn't count on sudden new rivalries with Min and Gunnar, or having to chase after a cabin full of unruly campers. And he especially doesn't count on a fellow counselor as hunky as Web Bastion.
Things do happen at Camp Serenity, especially at night. Brent Hartinger's third novel is a story about Indian legends, skinny-dipping in moonlit coves, and the mysteries of a secret society called the Order of the Poison Oak.




En god efterfølger til Geography Club. Jeg kunne godt lide, hvordan at selvom de var der som ''voksne'' så var det i lige så høj grad udviklende for dem som for børnene der deltog i lejren.

24: Geography club

Geography Club
af Brent Hardinger


233 sider
2003
eg.
engelsk
god


Russel Middleook is convinced he's the only gay kid at Goodkind High School.Then his online Gay chat buddy turns out to be none other than Kevin the popular but closeted star of the school's baseball team. Soon Russel meets other gay students too. There's his best friend Min who reveals that she is bisexual.and her soccerplaying girlfriend Terese. Then there's Terese's politically active friend. Ike. But how can kids this diverse get together without drawing attention to themselves. Choose a club that's so boring nobody in their right mind would ever in a million years join it. Call it Geography Club


En rigtig god ungdomsbog med gode personskildringer. Man lærer de fleste af dem godt at kende. Men enten skulle den havde været længere eller der skulle skæres ned på personerne, for der er nogle af dem man kun lærer overfladisk at kende. Fx Ike. Så lidt flere sider til at komme rigtig i dybden med alle personerne. Men det er stadig en rigtig god bog, der beskriver det at være homoseksuel på en måde der føles meget rigtig. Som læser forstår man deres frygt og deres udvikling.